The Secret Society of Functional Drug Addicts
3:00 am on a Wednesday, three unnamed individuals are sprawled across the cement floor of an inner-city apartment. Through muffled voices, a conversation pertaining to business can be heard.
"If MindSpace IPOs I'll be the first on that, my investor buddies tell me it's going to be huge!"
"Yeah, and you'll be the last the one out when they file for chapter 11"
"High risk, high return baby!"
"You know that's right!"
"Will you guys shut up already, and just listen to the damn song" yells the female of the group.
"Laughter breaks out between the nameless individuals as they continue discussing somewhat opaque topics.
A syringe sits dormant on the kitchen counter with its protective cap left unattended nearby, a spot of blood is visibly congealed inside the barrel.
The apartment is well lit - minimalistic with an open plan living room furnished with a few couches, chairs, and a white table. Bohemian Rhapsody is playing quietly through a colourful speaker opposite the kitchen.
The kitchen, though surprisingly clean, is inherently cluttered with empty boxes of different prescription medications. Oxycodone seems to enjoy making a repeated appearance, followed by amphetamine and benzodiazepine bottles.
If one didn't know any better they would think they stumbled into a 24-hour pharmacy through the back entrance and are now being privy to what pharmacists see when disposing of expired medication.
A rectangular box with another syringe sits adjacent to the nameless person closest to the kitchen. But this is no regular needle, and this no regular person. It contains a substance called Naloxone Naloxone, of course, which is the most effective antidote to accidental (or intentional) opioid overdoses.
You're probably familiar with heroin. Either through the mass media condemnation of users of the drug, celebrity deaths, movies, or even through personal experiences, some of which you may not want to recall. Naloxone is what they call an opioid antagonist - effectively the opposite of heroin which is an opioid agonist. As the names suggest, an agonist is a chemical that activates a certain receptor in your body or brain, and an antagonist deactivates it.
It's the safety net underneath the feet of a tightrope walker, the brakes on your car, or the second condom because... well just in case. The equilibrium that one doesn't notice until the symptoms of a disequilibrium begin to present themselves.
Meanwhile, 4,300 miles away in a temp-stay apartment in the borough of Queens, a girl in her early 20s is showering while her boyfriend is orchestrating his own rendition of Streetlight Manifesto's - Forty Days using a crack pipe as a baton.
After spending the day working at a firm in Manhattan, he knows that while business hours have come to an end, the workday is just beginning for him.
So, he continues to twirl and swirl his glass baton around, drawing the number 8 while the contents vaporize within.
Now and then he pauses to sing familiar lyrics.
"And when we will fall, we will fall togetherrrrrr! No one will catch us so we'll catch us ourselves. And when we roaaaaam, we will roam forever. No one will understand what we meant"
"What's the time?" yells the girlfriend, her voice drowning out her partner's performance.
"And turn that down!"
"You got it, it's 5:30 pm. But before I stop... Mercy mercy mercy meee!"
"Stop singing!"
"Alright, I need to get back to work anyway!" he shouts back.
The room goes quiet.
"You got the Adderall?"
It had been two days since the couple had slept. Whilst one was pulling sixty-hour weeks working in the lucrative field of biotech, the other was teaching herself the necessary skills to become a graphic designer.
The clock finally strikes ten o'clock when the man realizes that there is no food in the house. He tells himself if he's planning on pulling another all-nighter he needs some sustenance, particularly after the medical incident that unexpectedly struck him down during the office Christmas party several months ago.
"I'll be back, want anything from the deli?" he asks his partner, getting ready to leave the apartment.
"I'll have whatever you have" she replies softly, keeping her attention fixed on her sketchbook.
She didn't like New York City very much or the people residing in it. She found it overwhelming, and the people intimidating, so it was rare that she left the house.
On the other hand, like many others, her partner loved the appeal of the big city. Especially the grimey, not-so-safe areas. He found the experiences he had there psychologically exhilarating. Yet looking from the outside in it would be easy for one to presume that the thing that attracted him to NYC was simply his desire for escapism rather than to explore a genuine temptation for danger.
To live in a movie, experiencing something different at every cutscene. The thought that would let him rationalize some of his most lude, obscene and dangerous of behaviours.